Moving to our new workshop in Frome has been a pretty big step for BTR. We have both have held down jobs and worked in The Shed in the evenings and weekends until now. We had minimal overheads so it was easy to get set up, but it has become very difficult to keep on top of everything we need to do. So when an opportunity to move into a space next to The Bicycle Academy came up we jumped at the chance. Now we have a dedicated space that is already set up a lot better than the old shed, we have 3-phase power (and a meaty lathe to run on it), lights, no leaks in the roof, a pump track…its a long list. But everything has suddenly got a lot more serious at the same time- we now have rent and bills to pay, and the time is fast approaching that BTR will have 2 incomes to support too… that means that some numbers that added up nicely before the move no longer do, so if we’re going to make this work we unfortunately need to put our prices up. This isn’t something we are particularly pleased about, but its just the way it has to be.
Our UK 2014 prices will be:
Belter DH: £700
Ranger Gravity Enduro: £765
Ripper Juvenile DH: £550
Ignitor 4X: £750
Blinder DJ: £750
Its not all negatives though! As usual we’re doing our best to improve our products wherever we can, and for 2014 we’ve made some great changes:
- All frames will now feature 142 or 157 x 12mm dropouts, instead of 135 or 150 x 12mm. The new dropouts are every bit as strong as the older ones, as well as making it much easier to install and remove the rear wheel
- The new dropouts feature a smaller, lighter and cheaper mech hanger, which wont slip when the rear axle is removed
- All frames will use a stronger steel for all gussets. The new material also gives improved fatigue life in the weld zone
- We now offer a range of well over 100 frame colours at no extra cost
We’ll never be able to compete with Taiwanese prices- our material cost alone is more than a finished frame from a Taiwanese factory. Considering the amount of time and effort, and the cost of the materials that go into one of these frames, we still think that our prices are very reasonable- we build all of our frames to order, ourselves in the UK, not overseas where labour and materials are cheap.
The new prices come into effect on January 1st 2014, so if you want a frame at our old prices you better place your order soon!
Tam